Bridge Financial

Equities Bounce Back

Good news on the equities front this week with a number of stock indices reaching new highs:

DUBLIN

The Iseq index of leading shares closed up 65.05 points at 5,960.13 with Bank of Ireland and Ryanair among the gainers. The Iseq index has bounced back strongly since hitting a 12 month low on the 24th of June at 5,286.65.

Bank of Ireland continued its rebound, following other European banks higher to close up almost 2 per cent at 19.5 cents. Permanent TSB was down 2.3 per cent however to €2.09 despite new figures showing a 24.9 per cent rise in mortgage drawdowns in the second quarter.

Germany

Germany’s DAX closed up 2.5 per cent, having hit 10,701.33, its highest level since the last trading day of 2015.The index is up 16 per cent from its June low and 23 per cent from a trough hit in February.

The Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.9 per cent, in positive territory for a fifth straight session. It is just 0.4 per cent away from regaining all of its losses made after the Brexit vote in late June.

London

Britain’s top shares index closed on Tuesday at its highest level in 14 months, lifted by gains in major financial stocks, including Standard Life.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index ended at 6,851.30 points, up 0.6 per cent, above a high last reached in June 2015. The FTSE 100 is up nearly 10 per cent so far in 2016.

New York

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq came off their record highs in early trading on Tuesday as weak oil prices partially offset the gains in healthcare and technology stocks. The S&P 500 rose to 2,187.66, breaking its record for the fourth time this month, and the Nasdaq touched an all-time high of 5,238.53, before a 0.8 per cent decline in oil took some sheen off the rally.